California Republicans' brazen water grab

ON CALIFORNIA'S WATER

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, February 16, 2012

Photo: Mark Costantini, SFC

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Photo: Mark Costantini, SFC

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Matt Brewer from Cortland-Hood Calif, prepares for a late afternoon of fishing trip as he walks down a levee to a slough off the Sacramento River in Walnut Grove Ca at Delta Meadows Park Thursday June 24, 2010. Levee collapses from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers are a constant threaten to towns and farms built next to the levee system, but to introduction of salt water to the system is viewed negatively by most that riley on the levees. less

Matt Brewer from Cortland-Hood Calif, prepares for a late afternoon of fishing trip as he walks down a levee to a slough off the Sacramento River in Walnut Grove Ca at Delta Meadows Park Thursday June 24, 2010. ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

California Republicans' brazen water grab

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House Republicans are poised to pass legislation that would usurp California's ability to manage its own water supply, harm the San Francisco Bay Estuary ecosystem and drive California's salmon to extinction.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Alpaugh (Tulare County), wrote the bill to reverse the way water is allocated in California. It essentially ensures water supplies for farmers by taking it from the state's native salmon, trout and other fisheries.

Beyond that, it:

-- Undermines water conservation efforts.

-- Dries up a 40-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River - the state's second largest - by ending the restoration project that saw salmon returning two years ago for the first time in more than 60 years.

-- Ends the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process but does nothing to address the problems of water supply and quality the plan seeks to address.

In short, it promotes the agribusiness interests of Nunes' district over other interests and upends the collaborative efforts to distribute California's limited water supply fairly.

Northern California water interests had objected to an earlier version because it required them to make up the water for the fish that Nunes' would deliver to San Joaquin Valley farms. The new version exempts them from providing water for fish, so they are on board.

Democrat Rep. Jerry McNerney, who represents both San Joaquin Valley farmers and the delta, says this: "To steal water from one community to benefit another is unconscionable."

We agree. The House should reject this brazen water grab.

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